Mount Rinjani Closed to Climbing Activities for One Year

Indonesia’s Mount Rinjani, the world’s second highest volcano, will be closed to all mountain climbing activities for a year following the recent earthquakes on Lombok island, a report said on Saturday, September 8.

The head of Rinjani National Park was cited by Malaysian state news agency Bernama as saying it would take a year to repair the trails and trekking routes of the mountain, which is popular with tourists and trekkers from all over the world.

“Many climbing trails are cracked and very dangerous to climbers and it takes about a year for repair works to be done to enable mountain climbing activities to continue,” the official, identified by a single name Sudiyono, said.

Lombok was hit by two major earthquakes on July 29 and August 5 which killed more than 400 people and injured more than 1,000 others. According to Indonesia’s Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics, more than 700 aftershocks have occurred in Lombok since August 5.

A Malaysian woman who was trekking on Mount Rinjani was killed in the July 29 earthquake, which also trapped hundreds of other trekkers on the volcano, Bernama reported. The 41,330-hectare national park has been closed since.